cul·ture
/ˈkəlCHər/
The characteristics and knowledge
of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion,
cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
no·mads
/ˈnōˌmads/
People who do not stay long in the
same place; wanderers, travelers.
Currently in Brisbane, QLD
Total Miles Traveled: 20,163
cul·ture
/ˈkəlCHər/
The characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
no·mads
/ˈnōˌmads/
People who do not stay long in the same place; wanderers, travelers.
Currently in Brisbane, QLD
Total Miles Traveled: 20,163
Welcome to Our Family Travel Blog
Welcome
Welcome to Our Family Travel Blog
Welcome
Our family is traveling the world, making memories, and learning. We just sailed from French Polynesia to Australia on “Hanavave,” a 38-foot Fountaine Pajot catamaran.
Travel with us:
Culture Nomads on Travel + Leisure’s Podcast
Culture Nomads on Travel + Leisure’s “Let’s Go Together” podcast
I heard about your incredible adventure on the podcast and have since done a deep dive on your Instagram. What you are doing is simply inspiring!!
Pre-covid we took our kids (7 & 9) to NZ and Australia for 6 weeks but I have long dreamed of doing what you are. I wonder if I shoud wait till our kids are in their teens though :).
I will continue to follow your travels but just wanted to say: stranger to another stranger: I believe the gift you are giving your kids right now is the absoute best gift of all. And you inspire me…so thank you!
Crossing the South Pacific: Sailing Tahiti to Australia
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane: A 13-Day Passage
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3 | Bora Bora to Fiji: A 15-Day Passage
We are a family of 4 traveling the world full time. Currently, we are sailing the South Pacific from French Polynesia to Australia.
Grant is an Aussie Best-Selling Mindful Leadership Author, Speaker and Business Strategist and Jana is a Czech born and raised Creative Director and Artist. Our son, Jack, is 16 and our daughter, Stella (aka Stellie, Ellie, or Bean) is 15. We also have Mackie and Paigie, 9-year old Labradoodles and Phoebe, a 3-year old Great Dane.
Since 2020 has turned out to be a crazy year, we decided to sell our home in Charlottesville, Virginia, move into “Thelma & Louise,” a 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV and a 2016 Jeep Wrangler and travel the U.S. and Mexico.
After almost 8 months of traveling the U.S. and Mexico with Thelma and Louise, we transitioned to “Hanavave,” a 38-foot catamaran in Tahiti. We will spend the next few months sailing French Polynesia and the South Pacific to Australia.
We invite you to travel with us by following our social channels below.
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-jana-grant
Jana & Grant
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-jack-stellie
Jack & Stellie
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-welcome-puppies
Paigie, Phoebe & Mackie
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-welcome-thelma-louise
Thelma & Louise
“Why We Sold Our Home to Live on a Bus and Travel Full-Time”
by Grant & Jana
“Why We Sold Our Home to Live on a Bus and Travel Full-Time”
by Grant & Jana
“How We Stay Safe & Healthy While Traveling Full-Time during COVID-19”
by Grant & Jana
“How We Stay Safe & Healthy While Traveling Full-Time during COVID-19”
by Grant & Jana
“Lessons From the Road | Less is More: Adventure Over Stuff”
by Jana
“Lessons From the Road | Less is More: Adventure Over Stuff”
by Jana
Our Trip
Trip
Our Trip
Trip
About Us
About
About Us
About
Best-Selling Author & Business Strategist | MacGyver
Creative Director | Artist Outdoors
16 | Soccer Player | Music | “The Office”
15 | Artist | Singer | Animal Lover | Anime
Hanavave
Tour
Hanavave
Tour
About Thelma the Bus
About
About Thelma
About
Thelma was our 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV. We spent almost 8 months traveling the U.S. and Mexico with her between November 2020 and June 2021. She was 40-feet long and had a main living area with a custom built dining section, kitchen section with a fridge, freezer and pantry, two custom built bunks for the kids and a wardrobe with a large cabinet and drawers. The bathroom area was in between the main living area and the back bedroom, which had a queen size bed, large closet and plenty of cabinets and drawers for storage.
Thelma towed Louise, our 2016 Jeep Wrangler. Upon moving on to Hanavave, a catamaran in French Polynesia, we sold Thelma and Louise and they both now live in Washington State.
We will always cherish the memories we made while traveling with Thelma & Louise.
Thelma was our 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV. We spent almost 8 months traveling the U.S. and Mexico with her between November 2020 and June 2021. She was 40-feet long and had a main living area with a custom built dining section, kitchen section with a fridge, freezer and pantry, two custom built bunks for the kids and a wardrobe with a large cabinet and drawers. The bathroom area was in between the main living area and the back bedroom, which had a queen size bed, large closet and plenty of cabinets and drawers for storage.
Thelma towed Louise, our 2016 Jeep Wrangler. Upon moving on to Hanavave, a catamaran in French Polynesia, we sold Thelma and Louise and they both now live in Washington State.
We will always cherish the memories we made while traveling with Thelma & Louise.
Our Travel Blog
Our Travel BlogTravel
Please note that the focus of our blog is not to be a travel guide or a review site. Rather, it is a family diary of our travels accompanied by “Reflections,” which are thought pieces about our experiences.
As we are currently living on a sail boat in French Polynesia, our internet access is quite limited and we are unable to post daily diary entries. You can visit our social media channels for short updates and we will be posting recaps and reflections of longer time periods less frequently.
Thanks for traveling with us! ?✌️
Our Travel Blog
Travel
Please note that the focus of our blog is not to be a travel guide or a review site. Rather, it is a family diary of our travels accompanied by “Reflections,” which are thought pieces about our experiences.
As we are currently living on a sail boat in French Polynesia, our internet access is quite limited and we are unable to post daily diary entries. You can visit our social media channels for short updates and we will be posting recaps and reflections of longer time periods less frequently.
Thanks for traveling with us! ?✌️
Travel Diary
Travel
A log of what we get up to, including a photo and video galleries.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passage
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passageinstagramfacebookyoutubetwitter A Long-Awaited Departure After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th....
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage
After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we had spent the last week waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
Sailing
Sailing
Video episodes of our South Pacific Crossing
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passage
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 4: Fiji to Brisbane Passageinstagramfacebookyoutubetwitter A Long-Awaited Departure After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th....
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Leg 3: Bora Bora to Fiji Passage
After having waited in French Polynesia for two and a half months, we excitedly sailed out of Bora Bora around 7:30 am on Saturday, September 4th. Like the rest of French Polynesia, Bora Bora was in COVID lockdown, and we had spent the last week waiting for our departure paperwork to go through all the requisite bureaucratic channels. This required multiple trips to the local gendarmerie (police station), where Grant quickly befriended the two kind and helpful officers, Alex and Bruno.
Places
Places
These are some of the states we have visited so far. Click here to view all.
BC
Baja, Mexico
UT
Utah
National Parks
Parks
These are some of the National Parks we have visited. Click here to view all.
AZ
Grand Canyon
UT
Arches
After one year and ten days, we were finally reunited with our puppies, 10-year-old Labradoodles, Mackie and Paigie, and 4-year-old Great Dane, Phoebe.
In the summer of 2020, as COVID was raging through the world, we decided to sell our home in Virginia, move into a 40-foot motorhome named "Thelma," hitch our Jeep "Louise" to her and hit the road.
We had no idea where we were going or how long we'd be traveling. Our kids, Jack, then 16, and Ellie, then 14, were doing school virtually and us parents were working remotely. Mackie, Paigie, and Phoebe had lived their whole lives on our property and we had no idea how they would fare in a "tiny house on wheels" living situation.
We traveled 10,000 miles through 21 states, visited 11 National Parks and spent 3 months over the winter living on the beach in Mexico. It was a trip of a lifetime and we loved it.
In June 2021, we sold Thelma and Louise and bought Hanavave, a 38-foot 2002 Fountaine Pajot catamaran in Tahiti. We decided to relocate our family to Australia, but at the time the only way to get there was by boat.
The puppies had to stay in Washington State and begin the long and cumbersome importation process into Australia. The minimum period is 6 months since the first test and since we had begun the process two months before, we figured that we were saying goodbye for a maximum of four months. It was a very difficult decision, but their caretaker, Colleen, is an amazing lady and we knew that she would take wonderful care of them. Saying goodbye to the puppies was one of the hardest things our family has ever had to do.
Little did we know that it would be a year and ten days before we'd see them again.
Our sailing trip was complicated by the fact that as soon as we arrived in Tahiti, all ports in the South Pacific closed due to the quickly-spreading Delta variant of COVID. This meant that instead of island hopping, we had to make long passages to Australia and there was a lot to be done on Hanavave to prepare her for that journey. We made it to Brisbane in mid-October, but it would take another 8 long months to get the puppies to Australia.
They arrived on June 1, a year to the day we left them.
2008 vs. 2022 at the Queensland Museum 💙
We are greatly enjoying regular trips to the Sunshine Coast to visit our family. The Queensland weather continues to be beautiful and allows us to spend time outside every day. The beach is always one of our favorite places, and when you see a creek running into the ocean, you have to build a dam!
This is our neighborhood in Brisbane, about 300 meters from the Brisbane River. After 5 days of sustained heavy rain, areas of Brisbane are under water. The water levels are very close to our house, but if the forecast holds we should be ok.
📷 @jack_gamble_shoots
Ellie & Picasso at the Queensland Art Gallery on a very beautiful rainy day in Brisbane.
A rainy early morning at the iconic Bondi Beach.
Forest bathing in the middle of the city 💚🌴🌳
Our @jessalfrancis kicked butt in her criterium race in Brisbane last night. Jessa is beyond impressive. She is going to be competing in the National Championships this week and we’ll be cheering her on through the TV.
📷 @jack_gamble_shoots
TRAVEL WITH US!
We are currently sailing the South Pacific to Australia.
Thank you for joining us, have a great day!